Various religions and cultures throughout history have revered lightning as a symbol of power, yet the physics of this phenomenon has remained an enigma until recent centuries. The quest to understand this began with Benjamin Franklin's discovery of lightning as a form of electricity in 1752, when he proved his hypothesis by flying a kite during a thunderstorm. Yes, Benjamin was right in proving that lightning was electricity, but the question is: how does electricity turn into lightning or how is it generated? There are three parts that play an important role in the creation of lightning; the first is the water cycle, the second is the buildup of static electricity that occurs in a cloud, and the last is how lightning is discharged. Cloud formation plays an extremely important role in creating lightning, but first is the water cycle. he needs to understand how clouds form before he understands how lightning works. The water cycle has two main phases essential for the creation of clouds; the first is condensation and the second is evaporation. First, evaporation occurs when water heats up and turns into steam. The source of the heat is usually the sun. Water turns into steam because when it heats up its molecules begin to move rapidly. Due to the heat, water vapor will rise from the ground and as it rises into the atmosphere it begins to cool and condense; the higher you are in the atmosphere, the colder the temperature. Steam condenses because it undergoes a process called condensation, which is when water changes from a gaseous or vapor state to a liquid state. The vapor turns into water droplets in the upper atmosphere and forms clouds. The more the water condenses, the heavier and larger the cloud will be... in the center of the paper... we should understand the components of atoms, the water cycle and how opposite electrical charges attract. Evaporation and condensation is what forms the cloud and the constant evaporation and condensation within the cloud causes electrons to fall to the bottom of the cloud creating charge separation. Once the cloud has accumulated enough charges, it begins to affect the Earth's surface by pushing back all the negative charge and leaving the surface with a positive charge. The strong electric field forms a bridge from the cloud to the earth's surface, ionizing the air called the step leader. Once the ascending streamers found on the Earth's surface connect with a pitch leader, a current is released and a flash is discharged. After the flash of lightning, a loud rumble caused by the air spreading rapidly due to heat is called thunder.